SECOORA is leading a new data-sharing initiative with partners from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. The goal is to build partnerships and improve data accessibility for marine management communities. Below are the projects from this initiative:
Sand Management
Lead Principal Investigator: Mary Conley, The Nature Conservancy
Description: Sand is a valuable resource for local beaches and it provides valuable habitat for a range of species, both on land, and underwater. The Sand Management web page provides an overview of socio-economic and ecological value of sand resources as well as user-friendly access to existing sand data sources at the state, federal, and local scale.
Incorporating Acoustic Telemetry Data Into Coastal Management
Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Joy Young, FACT Network
The FACT Network uses acoustic telemetry and other technologies to better understand and conserve our region’s important fish and sea turtle species. Acoustic telemetry is an increasingly useful resource, however, few analytical tools exist to transform the data into usable outputs. A new data visualization tool based on FACT Network observations will illustrate changes in marine species diversity over time.
Creating ‘ShellBase’, The Southeast Shellfish Water Quality Database
Lead Principal Investigator: Dr. Natalie Nelson, North Carolina State University
Individual states across the Southeast collect water quality data to monitor shellfish habitats, but a lack of standardization across datasets makes monitoring long-term environmental trends difficult. The project will synthesize bacteriological monitoring data from North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida in a single location online called ShellBase. Using standardized database and metadata structures, ShellBase will offer an accessible record of bacterial water quality data for the Southeast’s shellfish waters.
Increasing access to regional ecological data to help inform offshore ocean use decisions: Analysis and Visualization of Ocean Resources in the Context of Offshore Wind Energy Development
Lead Principal Investigator: Mary Conley, The Nature Conservancy
Proposed offshore marine projects – such as wind energy sites or sand dredging for beach nourishment – have the potential to impact marine species and habitats across the South Atlantic region. Stakeholders create environmental impact statements to highlight the effects of siting, construction, and operation of any offshore development or dredging project to marine life. Data needed for these statements are often hard to find and effectively analyze. A new decision support tool will allow stakeholders to easily query and visualize all available ocean data sets needed for environmental impact statements.
Increasing Water Level Data in the Southeast
Lead Principal Investigator: Debra Hernandez, SECOORA
Coastal communities throughout the southeast U.S. face threats from high tide flooding, storm surge, and sea-level rise. Flooding can impact daily commutes, emergency planning efforts during tropical storms and hurricanes, and strains public works infrastructure. New water level sensors are being installed in coastal communities that are facing these flood threats. The regional water level network will provide localized flooding alerts and support longer-term sea-level rise monitoring in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Funding
Funding for these projects is provided by Congress to to support regional ocean data sharing. A collaboration of the Integrated Ocean Observing System and Ocean and Coastal Management programs, the goal is to enhance capacity for sharing and integration of data from Federal and non-Federal sources to support regional coastal, ocean, and Great Lakes management priorities. Funding is intended to advance both foundational information (e.g. data deficiencies impeding management decisions, data sharing/management structure) and implementation activities (e.g. data products).
